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Clickers invade Downtown

Rebecca Diercks sat in a lounge chair, keeping an attentive eye on the pavement ahead, clicking rapidly on clickers as traffic sped by the Hennepin Avenue Davanni's Sept. 10.

Diercks graciously allowed a reporter to ask questions as she kept track of the cars, taxis and trucks zooming past her 1138 Hennepin Ave. perch. Her shift was 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; by 10:50 a.m., she had already tallied thousands of cars -- far more than the buses and trucks she was also assigned to spot.

The Fairbault resident was one of 100 people working the "Downtown Cordon Count." The city had several crews stationed around the perimeter of Downtown for a single day, keeping tabs of all the vehicles, walkers and bikers coming and going.

The count will assist planners in determining what impact the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line will have on traffic. LRT service is scheduled to be start next April, with four Downtown stops.

Diercks spent the day with fellow Fairbaulter Mary Kubes; both agreed to take on the Downtown project together.

The pair didn't chat very much. It would have interrupted their reporting Zen.